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London Turned into Giant Board Game
webponce writes "Hasbro have fitted out 18 London cabs with GPS tracking devices, and hooked them up to a real time, real life game of monopoly. You get to choose which cab driver you want to 'play' with, and then pick which properties around London you want to put your houses and hotels, hit go, sit back and wait for the other cab drivers to land on your square and make you rent. You get 24 hours of your cab running around London, and you have to see how much money you can make in a day (my bet, put your property on Wimbledon this week ;)"
London Tuned into Giant Board Game
real life counterstrike would be better... guess you'd have to go to iraq for that though...
Get your torrents...
What frequency is this giant board game broadcasting on?
Steve Jobs is also playing and he's landed on Regent Street.
basically you set it up, it ticks for 24hrs, then at the end it tells you how much money you made. im on about 300m last i checked, the game ends at 24hrs and you start again.
it isn't fun.
This seems....um...random?
What exactly is the added trill of having the position of your player on a monoploy board correlated with the position of a real life cabby?
I guess I just don't get it.
Watch out horses, Vegas, and greyhounds. Make way for the next level in high stakes betting. Who wouldn't be willing to put down a few real dollars ( or pounds) on a real live Monopoly game for once? I can see it now, Hasbro goes from clean cut toy company and becomes a modern day Mafia. Leading the way to high tech illegal gambling and racketeering.
"Man, I am so unbelievably stupid."
And you have to send them your email address to sign up.
Apparently I've been receiving notices about this game for the past year or so and just didn't realize it was Hasbro.
Stop spam!
Oldschool cardboard-and-paper Monopoly is boring as hell. This sounds much more fun, since you can just get out of the cab and go to the pub.
I am a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar.
Can't wait for "Halo 3, Bagdad".
...that some lucky cab rider gets a "Get Out Of Jail Free" card? If so, are there limits to what they can do to land themselves in jail? ;)
libertarianswag.com
passed DOWNING STREET, collect your shackles and report to lifetime imprisonment inside the tower of london.
Science : Proprietary , Knowledge : Open Source
I'm not sure if the cab system differs in London compared to where I live, but I'd predict a large increase in abandoned calls from locations people have bought a lot of property on.
Perhaps this could become a new True Cost kind of standard!
Physicist, consultant, science communicator
Democrats flew President Bush over (on the pretense of buying him a pet sheep) for a similar trick, but Bush simply changed the constitution so that while he didn't have to go to jail, he did get to collect $200, and without having to pass Go, either. He then rewrote to board to read "Go directly to Guatanamo Bay. And stay there."
Physicist, consultant, science communicator
The railway stations are in order, Kings Cross, Marylebone, Fenchurch Street, Liverpool Street.
Utilities are Electric Company and Water-Works.
You still have chance and community chest, with such joys as "go back three spaces", and "take a walk on the broad walk, advance token to mayfair", although not the German "go back to Old Kent Road".
OS/2 - because choice is a terrible thing to waste.
That was a belabored attempt at humor.
YUO FAIL IT!!!!11!1!1
Good thing Cancer, Aids, and Blindness have all been cured, so there is time to work on this shit!
In fact, arguably the nearest of the properties on a UK Monopoly board to Wimbledon is Old Kent Road*, which, ironically, is the first and hence cheapest property on the board.
If I were to make an educated guess, I'd say that either Euston Road, Picadilly or Trafalgar Square would win this competition, as they are major traffic arteries that cabs are always visible on.
(*Both Wimbledon and the Old Kend Road are south of the River Thames. There maybe a property that is a little closer to Wimbledon, but anyone who's ever lived in London would know that trying to get a taxi cab to take you "south of the river" can sometimes be harder than drawing blood from a stone.)
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
For ultimate realism, they should play in Tokyo where Godzilla can act as the dog that comes and eats your hotels.
Yeah, I know Hasbro is running the game, but..
Why not do something interesting like this based on a game that is actually fun to play. Puerto Rico, Catan, Carcassonne, etc. Especially in Europe where they don't play crap like Monopoly, and they play good games.
Playing real-life Monopoly in London is kinda of dangerous with all the spooks, CIA agents, and Russians with posion-tipped umbellas running around. Personally, I would try my luck with a pissed off New York taxi driver since it would be safer as the muggers get run over more often than the pigeons.
not funny anymore....
and this is why we don't have girlfriends....
Not to take away from the submitter or from anyone playing the game, but this story is pretty much a non-starter. Either you are playing or not, and if you aren't then there's really nothing to discuss.
But I think we've all played Monopoly (R), so there is some level of commonality in our experiences. We used to have a "lottery" system where all taxes and fees paid were paid to the "pot" and anyone landing on Free Parking would win the pot. It gave losing players a chance to suddenly make a quick turnaround and made the game more interesting.
What were the types of rule changes did you make to Monopoly when you played with your friends?
Except that this is all to advertise their new 'UP TO DATE' version of monopoly, with such wonders as 'The London Eye' 'Camden Markets' etc.
So, even though I couldn't be shagged looking through all the properties on the board they have there, I bet Wimbeldon is there.
1. You wouldn't be in direct control of the soldiers, they'd just go where they wanted to.
And this is different from Counter-Strike how, exactly?
Karma: It's all a bunch of tree-huggin' hippy crap!
Of course, with the success of the London edition, Hasbro is considering deploying a US Version (aka "The Original"), in which, as is known, the streets are those of Atlantic City, New Jersey.
The Taxicabs will still be there, but to ensure proper coverage of the board, GPS transceivers will also be attached to a select number of Hookers, Pimps, and Retirees off the bus from NYC.
London's been a board game for ages.
No, no. "Soviet Britian" is HILARIOUS!
What is to stop someone from getting in another player's chosen cab and keep going to their own property thus getting lots of money?
Sweet deities, you've found a way to make an already punishingly protracted game last even longer.
Here's my idea for a MpyMod: start all the players out with five bucks so we can actually finish the game tonight.
not funny anymore....
and this is why we don't have girlfriends....
And here I thought it was the pimples, body odor, fat rolls, and complete lack of anything vaguely resembling social skills. Turns out, all along it was the soviet jokes! D'oh!
This sounds a lot like an article I found linked off Ars yesterday. Apparently some companies are trying to combine LARPing with GPS and computer games to make some sort of real life game. Anyone know if there's anyone doing this in San Francisco?
Gamers turn cities into a battleground
London Tuned into Giant Board Game
What key is that? A minor?
I mean, I knew the editors were blind, but musical too? Who knew?!
*ducks*
In about grade 4, during summer vacation, when it was too hot to stay outside from just playing in the pool, we played monopoly. Nonstop. We used the same rule you did, putting all taxes and such in the 'pot' and whoever landed on Free Parking would win it. I also distinctly remember setting fire to the 2 cards that made you pay for owning houses and hotels, because we made another rule for our SUPER LONG TYCOON MONOPOLY, allowing us to build up to 2 hotels per property, costing twice as much to build, but would cost the person landing there twice the amount of the hotel price on the card. You would could also build extra houses, which would then be calculated by adding the price of landing on the hotel and adding the price of the amount of houses on the property.
The longest I've played monopoly for in one sitting would have to be 20 hours, with this version. It ended because we all fell asleep (it was only grade 4).
Let the commencement BEGINULATE!
Why not Scotland Yard? It's IDEAL to be played in the centre of London!
But if I can get the cabbie to drive past Go, do I get $200?
No, no you don't. You get to stay in your Momma's
basement and continue to bitch and moan about the
state of the world on slashdot.
The title:
"London Tuned into Giant Board Game"
Should that be "London Turned into Giant Board Game"
really have that much free fucking time on their hands? Here's a hint, good people of Britain: get out of the fucking cab, get off the fucking Dole, and get a fucking job!!
I've always fancied doing to The London Monopoly Pub Crawl.
You take the board under one arm and start at the first pub you can find in the Old Kent Road. After a pint you move onto a pub in Whitechapel Road. Pretty standard pub crawl stuff. Maybe a half would have to do though.
Loads of people have given it a go.
This post contains benzene, nitrosamines, formaldehyde and hydrogen cyanide.
Highly irrelevant here, but I used to be quite fond of all the anonymous trolls that kept posting on slashdot. I'm sure there are still many and they've moved on to other trolling methods, but this guy (whoever he was) always made me laugh:p roject=$2n _domain=$3
./troll.sh Asterisk 'Asterisk Project' Skype communication
#!/bin/sh
opensource_app=$1
opensource_
proprietary_alternative=$2
applicatio
SUBJECT="We tried working with ${opensource_app}..."
COMMENT="We tried working with ${opensource_app}
An employee suggested to me that we use ${opensource_app} on a few machines here as an evaluation. I was skeptical at first but he explained the benefits of using it for our employee's day-to-day ${application_domain}. So I decided to let him install the ${opensource_app} onto 5 machines to see how the users got on. Besides, our IT manager had been using it on his system and it seemed to work fine, why not try it on the client machines?
Once he'd got the machines up and running with ${opensource_app} we let the users try it out. It all seemed fine to start with: ${opensource_app} was a pretty good replacement for ${proprietary_alternative} and the users could still do their work as normal.
Alas it did not stay that way. After a few days, I had lost count of the number of complaints received from users who could find things they were used to or tasks they could not perform that they previously could with ${proprietary_alternative} ${application_domain}. The final straw came when one employee lost several hours work when ${opensource_app} suddenly had an error reading from our intranet file server and corrupted his project.
Needless to say, ${opensource_project} offered no support whatsoever. I made the employee uninstall ${opensource_app} from the machines and lets just say he's not with us anymore."
echo $SUBJECT
echo $COMMENT
This guy did all sorts of 'insightful' posts with:
e.g.
$
All the other ones were usually crap and not very clever e.g. 'Netcraft confirms it' but this one really tickled my ribs!
What've been your favourites?!
Great games. Easy to learn, great replayability, chance and expertise. It's all good.
Yay me!
Relative to Seoul
Sao Paulo
Mumbai
Jakarta
Karachi
Moscow
Istanbul
Mexico City
Shanghai
Tokyo
New York City
Bangkok
Beijing
and Delhi
As a veteran of three of these, I no longer need a map or a list of pubs. That's a total of 26 drinks, by the way, including the four station bars. It's a LOT easier to do on vodka and orange than on beer.
When I am king, you will be first against the wall.
I worked in Central London about twelve months ago. A mate and I had read up on decomissioned tube stations and the like, and thought it would be fun to spend a Saturday going around and trying to find them. This turned out to be not so fun. You pass a siding, see a shadow of something in the darkness, and go "Oh there it is"... and that's it. So this quickly turned into game of "let's see if we can pass through all of the zone 1 tube stations before the tube closes tonight. It was a close run, but we did it. We took a photo at each stop. basically - leap out of the train, *snap*, scuffle awkwardly away from the arms of any nearby security people, leap back on the train before the doors close and on to the next stop! During that day we got seriously yelled at for taking photos of an interesting looking building near Vauxhall Cross. Top day.
On another weekend I came third in a Mornington Crescent championship.
And since cab drivers are mentioned in this story, I'll also mention that during my time in London I also got propositioned by a cab driver. It was a company-paid and organised cab as well (!). I explained that while I had every confidence in his a lovely personality, I had a girlfriend back home and it just wouldn't do.
Believe with me, my saplings.
South of the river mate - Nah, can't go down there. You'll never guess who I had in the back of my cab yesterday.....
init 11 - for when you need that edge.
LOL.... you idiot. Lighten up mate.
. . . the delightful real-life board game from New York, PacManhattan.
This country is nuts. You get paid more to sit on your fat ass on the sofa all day than you would with a minimum wage job, commuting to work (from 6 miles away!!!!) costs me £4000 a year ($7000) (admittedly 'only' £2000 a year at the moment, but they're doubling the price of a travelcard in november), and the state wants us to pay up to £2 a mile to drive. On top of our 90p/litre ($8/gallon) fuel.
So... even though the parent is a troll: Here's a hint, good people of Britain: get out of the fucking cab, get off the fucking Dole, and get a fucking job!!
was a game put out a while back that made you a secret agent type character and you could enter fax phone pager email and you would get task and clues? If so, what is the name?
Acrylic Bubble Panels www.beyond7.com
Only six miles? You'd better buy a bicycle - and BTW, can you verify your comment about getting "paid more to sit on your fat ass on the sofa all day than you would with a minimum wage job" ?
When I first read the title my mind added an "R" in there. Talk about disappointment when I discovered is was just some bizarre Monopoly publicity stunt! :(
Some people are like slinkies--basically useless but they bring a smile to your face when pushed down the stairs.
Er, well, you've heard the expression "losing your shirt", right...?
Mornington Cresent, cabbie.
...just when it stops being funny it starts becomming funny again.
community chest card by smsing a text to 82222, this i what they try you to do while playing the game, i am telling you its just another get rich quick sceme!
*yawn* Ok, so there are 14 cities in the entire world more populous than London. However, Seoul only takes up half the area London does, and the point I was making was to do with the previous users comment which seemed to imply London was some kind of quaint village with no need for anyone to take a cab-ride anywhere.
The Championship fortnight is the only time of the year a black cab can be see this far south in London. The rest of the year is mini-cabs and quiet little village in SW19 to live.
And that is Mornington Crescent.
Steal another player's cab and drive it around. (Yes, stealing a data-linked cab with GPS would be stupid. So what? Plenty of stupid crimes every day.)
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
The EU fined Hasbro 493 million euros and ordered them to produce a version of the game where the cabs had no seat belts.
You simply stop by Chance and get a "Get out of Jail Free" card.
Get your Unix fortune now!
If you're even considering strip-monopoly, you have too much patience...
http://jcsnippets.atspace.com/ - a collection of Java & C# snippets
Warney has been in trouble with the media a couple of times -- Fleet St is home to the tabloid press in London...
Mongrel News all the news that fits and froths
We tried working with Monopoly
An employee suggested to me that we use Monopoly on a few machines here as an evaluation. I was skeptical at first but he explained the benefits of using it for our employee's day-to-day gambling. So I decided to let him install the Monopoly onto 5 machines to see how the users got on. Besides, our IT manager had been using it on his system and it seemed to work fine, why not try it on the client machines?
Once he'd got the machines up and running with Monopoly we let the users try it out. It all seemed fine to start with: Monopoly was a pretty good replacement for Cluedo and the users could still do their work as normal.
Alas it did not stay that way. After a few days, I had lost count of the number of complaints received from users who could find things they were used to or tasks they could not perform that they previously could with Cluedo gambling. The final straw came when one employee lost several hours work when Monopoly suddenly had an error reading from our intranet file server and corrupted his project.
Needless to say, Hasbro offered no support whatsoever. I made the employee uninstall Monopoly from the machines and lets just say he's not with us anymore.
Hey! Some of us don't have fat rolls and body odor!
In college, we invented Trivialopoly by combining Trivial Pursuit and Monopoly. If you wanted to buy a property or place a house or hotel, you had to correctly answer a question from the card drawn.
I don't think we ever finished a game.
SharkJumper
Oh man you silly brits with your "Cost of Living" Minimum wage, and great welfare benefits. Take a lesson from America and screw over the unemployed and minimum wage earners. One of the largest employers in America (Walmart) pays its employees £2.80 an hour, with no medical or other benefits, and people are lining up for jobs with them.
Right now i would be happy if someone could implement a giant sun-blocking shield in London.
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
Looking at the headline, I was really hoping it was going to be Scotland Yard.
Now *that* is one of my all-time favorite games growing up and through college. In fact, it's sitting right here in the basement... somewhere...
Oh man I smell great cross-over games in the making!
Like Godzilla London Cabbie Monopoly! All we need is a giant lizard to attack London, but basically it works the same way, you place your houses and hotels, and make money in the same way, but if they are destroyed, you can no longer collect rent... oh, and if your cab is destroyed, you lose.
Quick! Start radiating the seas, I'll start coding!
MoM++ - A Classic Expanded - [Master of Magic 1.5]
http://mompp.sourceforge.net/
Q: Why is starting a message in the Subject line irritating?
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
...in case of need, I always carry a "get out of jail free" card with me.
In the old days people used run travel competitions based on "clues", "locations", and "items". These days you can replace the old tools of instruction sheets, maps, and phone calls with GPS, and text-messaging.
Has anyone considered playing on holidays and weekends when people drink more. More people would catch a cab if they were drunk and didn't want to drive.
http://realcountertrike.istheshit.net/
The spelling error is intentional.
roflmatofl
I found this while poking around the live site, talk about on-demand publishing! For 100 pounds, you can have a custom-designed monopoly set created and made for you.
In my mind, that's just as cool as if not cooler than live monopoly (which is only open to UK residents anyway :P )....
In a sad but ironic twist, London was demolished and devoured by a pack of hungry, hungry hippos...
LOL - Fantastic.
Here in the states, we have the same problem with people licensing versions of monopoly to suit their particular odd whims. For instance, a lot of towns get their own streets put into a monopoly board and then it gets called "something"-opoly. When playing londonopoly and you get "take a walk on the boardwalk" where do you go?
...inspired by the late lamented interurban railways around metro London (I think), a song by Michael Flanders and Donald Swann. (This nostalgic and evocative song made me misty-eyed years before I set foot in England. The rhythm is very slow and pulses like the Slow Train of the title.)